Dave's Transformers Rant: Plush Transformers Slumblebee Softimus Prime Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/Plush1 These transform, and they have Classics-style logos on the tags, so they go in the Classic directory. :) Hit a big motherlode of new TFs at K-Mart today, but sadly most of 'em had been set out by mistake and were not sellable yet, so I had to put back the Real Gear Robots, Fast Action Battlers and voice-changer helmet. But I did score these plushies (and Cyber Stompin' Bumblebee and the Nerf-gauntlet Prime). CAPSULES Slumblebee: Simpler pattern, a little less snuggly, but a more intrinsically huggable charcter. Can also be cut apart and restuffed as two separate plushes if you want. Recommended. $10.99 at K-Mart. Softimus Prime: The better of the two, although it suffers from understuffing in some places (those handier with a stitch-ripper and needle than I am might want to partially open him up and add more fill). Recommended. $10.99 at K-Mart. RANTS Packaging: These are "loose" with tags held on by those little clothes-tag plastic things, sitting in robot mode in a point-of-purchase tray. Four Primes and four Slumblebees in a display. The tags are hexagonal fold-overs (thus opening up to a double-hex) using Classics logo and border patterns. The front has the logo, the phrase "Convert from robot to X!" where X is truck or car as appropriate, and a photo of the vehicle mode . At the bottom is the character name. Softimus Prime is in red letters on blue, while Slumblebee is in red letters on yellow. Both are labeled "Reversible Plush" below the name. Opening the tag up reveals the insides are printed upside down, oops. At the top of the vertically stacked hexes is the tagline, "Hidden among us, there are alien machines with the awesome ability to change from one form to another. They are...THE TRANSFORMERS!" Below that is a photo of robot mode, with the name to th eleft and the instruction "Locate seam on back..." to the right. Below is a double arrow pattern with "Turn inside-out!" written on it, and then below that is a picture of the vehicle mode. That's pretty much it for instructions, but it doesn't really NEED more. Note that you need to remove the tags before transforming. The bottom has various ownership and legalese stuff. The backs of the tags have UPC and the usual ownership legalese, plus webpages. Softimus is 82480/82479 ASST., Slumblebee is 82481/82479 ASST. There's no bio notes or storyline or anything like that, so I'm going to make up my own! STORY OF THE PLUSHFORMERS There are infinite worlds, but only one Primus, who stretches across them all. He loves his children all equally, even those that are...strange to him. In one world, physics does not allow for any hard substances, leaving all matter soft and spongy at best. It is in this world that Primus formed the nougaty matter of a planetoid into SWABBERTRON, the cottony tipped home of the PLUSHFORMERS! While it's awfully hard to wage war in a reality where bullets just bounce off harmlessly or even drift away if the wind is too stiff, it inevitably happened anyway. The noble AUTOBOPS fight a not terribly desperate struggle against the crochety and selfish DECEPTIYAWNS. AUTOBOP: SLUMBERBEE Function: Recon Altmode: Car Motto: "The least likely can be the most comfortable." Small, eager and cute, SLUMBERBEE is one of the AUTOBOPS' greatest assets. Able to fit into places others can't quite squeeze, he's their best scout. He's also just so adorable that DECEPTIYAWNS often can't bring themselves to attack him. STR 2 INT 8 SPD 3 END 7 RNK 7 COUR 10 CDL 10 SKL 7 Avg 6.75 "CDL" is "Cuddlyness", and replaces Fireblast. Robot Mode: It's hard to get a solid measure on height, due to the plsuh nature of the toy, but it's between 10" and 11" (25-28cm) tall. Also, being plush, it can't really stand on its own, and requires a lot of propping, but it will sit nicely against a pillow or something. This is definitely meant to be the G1 Bumblebee, and it shows clearly in the chest area, but the head almost looks more like a G1 Blurr done in yellow. The cloth is 100% polyester (according to the tag on his butt), and comes in two base colors: black on the shoulders, upper arms, pelvis, thighs, hands and the bottoms of the feet; yellow on head, torso, forearms and boots. Patterns are printed on the cloth for most of the details, although there's an attempt to evoke the head shape physically. The face uses black lines, dark and light gray, lighter yellow and orange-er yellow in the patterns, with the eyes being white with blue rims. The chest has windows in white/blue/gray-gradient, uses light and orangey yellows to evoke shinyness, and has a red Autobot symbol at the center. The upper arms use gray with some white lines to look more mechanical, and the fists have white and gray hand patterns on them. The boots use the same sort of colors as the chest, with blue and white headlights. Wheels are printed on the sides of the boots, not "molded". Black, white and gray tech details are found on the forearms, back, and non-vehicle sides of the boots. There's no printing on the shoulders, pelvis or thighs. The torso is "hollow" and filled with the wadded up vehicle mode, making it somewhat lumpy if you're not careful in transformation. The other body parts are stuffed with polyfill. There's a seam along the back held closed with velcro (or a generic equivalent), and a white tag on the butt. It instructs one to hand wash, air dry. Now for "poseability". The upper arms and thighs are thinner and less fully stuffed, so the figure can flop around at those points. There are no actual joints, per se. But did you really expect any? Huggability is decent, although the torso is a bit stiff. If you really want to make a cuddly plush, you might want to "kitbash" one to be non- transforming, as explained below. It helps to try to make sure the stuffed wheels of the vehicle mode are at the outsides, though. Transformation: The torso contains both the car mode outer piece and a ring of white fabric that connects the two. The ring allows for more freedom of movement, so you don't need to have everything line up perfectly at the interface. It also means there's two sets of velcro tabs, be careful not to get them mixed up. You may need to fiddle around a bit to find a way of stowing all the parts that results in a non-lumpy vehicle mode. Due to the way it's put together, if you want, you could simply cut through the white cloth and remove it, then use some polyfill to make separate robot and vehicle mode plushies. Be sure to sew 'em shut, of course. Vehicle Mode: 7.5" (19cm) long, more or less. It's not quite a VW Beetle, new or old, likely due to Hasbro's problems getting VW's permission in recent years to use the likeness. It's not exactly Classics Bumblebee either. Almost more like a Pacer or Gremlin or something. The underside, bumpers and wheels are black cloth, the top is yellow cloth. Similar printed patterns as in robot mode, but not quite the same. The robot mode looks more like it turns into a Beetle, but distinctive Beetle-isms are missing here. The wheels are "molded" in that they stick out below the underside a bit and are individually stuffed. On both front and rear are license plates with the tag "BB1". A single long velcro seam runs down the middle of the underside, the long way. Much cuddlier in this mode, due to the polyfill inside all the parts, with very little of the bulk formed by wadded fabric. Overall: Okay, a bit small as plushes go, but it does transform. And it's quite cute. AUTOBOP: SOFTIMUS PRIME Function: Leader of the Autobops Altmode: Truck Motto: "Naptime is the right of all sentient beings!" Wise, brave, and extremely cuddly, SOFTIMUS PRIME is a comforting presence in even the worst of times. He's had the stuffing beaten out of him on many occasions by DECEPTIYAWN warriors, but always pulls himself back together and comes back for more. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 2 END 10 COUR 10 RNK 10 CDL 10 SKL 10 Avg 9 Robot Mode: A little easier to measure than Slumblebee, 10.5" (27cm) tall. He looks a little deflated, though, as his smaller details (helmet horns, smokestacks) aren't fully stuffed. Oh, and he has short stacks. The head, fists and boots are made of dark blue fabric. The upper arms, pelvis, upper legs and smokestacks are light gray fabric. The torso, shoulders and forearms are red fabric. Most of the printed details are in black, one of three shades of gray, or white, but there's a little blue on te eye rims and the chest windows. The lights across the collarbone area are yellow, and the toe lights are a mix of orange, yellow and white. The Autobot symbol on his right shoulder is a white outline. Fist details are not just in black, white and light blue, but also in a darker blue than the fabric. The back is covered in techy details in grays with a few red printed lights. Overall, a very good "paint job". The wheels on the boots are formed, but not well-stuffed, so they're more like flaps. He has velcro to hold the legs together, plus "non-scratchy" tabs on the front of his pelvis for vehicle mode. This can be used to hold a "crossed legs" pose with the right leg velcroed to the right pelvis. There's a small inverted T seam on the small of the back held together with three velcro tabs. The tag on his butt has the same warnings and info as Slumblebee's. Transformation: Unlike Slumberbee, he's not fully reversible. The legs stay where they are to be the rear of the vehicle, velcro-ing together. The arms and head invert into the torso. There's no extra fabric ring here either, since you're basically just inverting the torso and making a rectangular block into another rectangular block. It's important to make sure that one arm goes forward of the other, to reduce lumpiness of the cab. The fabric of both sections is padded and thick, so that when one mode wads up inside the other it feels a little plusher than in Slumblebee's case. Vehicle Mode: 7.5" (19cm) long, with a hollow front bottom section behind the bumper that can't just be filled by stuffing an arm down in it. The front wheels are "molded" but also understuffed. The entire cab section is red fabric, with the front wheels printed on in black and grays. The smokestacks are formed out of gray fabric and a bit better stuffed in this mode. Printed details are very good, with a pale red used to denote shiny surfaces. There's Autobot symbol outlines in white on both sides, and the license plate on the front says "PRIME1". Overall: A bit more technically advanced than Slumblebee, but suffers in a few places from the stuffing not backing up the ambitious pattern. Dave Van Domelen, http://www.dvandom.com/images/grimlow.JPG